Maybe it's a boot problem

[George1981]

Hello

I came across a strange behaviour. My computer boots untill the login screen and when I type in my password it reloads the vendor's logo (HP) and returns to the login screen.
I tried to run recovery mode from the boot menu but nothing happened. Also I tried booting older versions of the kernel from the boot menu and again the same problem.
Anyone had the same problem?

PS : If this is not the right group to post this issue please tell me where to post it again

[shedyed]

Have you tried booting from a liveUSB? The prompt presents a menu, where you can choose to boot from the primary hard drive, and maybe coming from a different direction eliminates this quirky behavior, but this is a symptom of something else. So you see the bit How to get help above -- be sure to provide the info so the folks here (mostly volunteers) can assist you better

[Cosmo.]

Press in the login screen ctrl-alt-F1, this brings you to a virtual console. Enter at first your username (only not capitalized letters) and at the following request your password. You should get logged in.

Now enter those commands:
ls -la
mv .dmrc dmrc.ren
mv .Xauthority Xauthority.ren

(The first command has only the purpose to show you the file names, so you can look them up. Watch the leading dots in some of the file names.)

Press ctrl-d, press alt-left(cursor), you should be back in the login screen. Try to log in.

[Cosmo.]

mostly volunteers

Correction: all volunteers.

[George1981]

Press in the login screen ctrl-alt-F1, this brings you to a virtual console. Enter at first your username (only not capitalized letters) and at the following request your password. You should get logged in.

Now enter those commands:
ls -la
mv .dmrc dmrc.ren
mv .Xauthority Xauthority.ren

(The first command has only the purpose to show you the file names, so you can look them up. Watch the leading dots in some of the file names.)

Press ctrl-d, press alt-left(cursor), you should be back in the login screen. Try to log in.

Tried it not working

[pbear]

Have you been running the system for a while or is this a new installation?

[Cosmo.]

Tried it not working

It would be helpful, at which step it did not work and what exactly appeared on the screen.

Another try:
Boot the live system and open there the file manager. Mount the drive with the installed system. Navigate to your home of the installed system. Make hidden files visible (ctrl-h). Scroll to the bottom, so that the files (in contrast to the folders) get visible and take a screenshot. Post it here.

[George1981]

Hello again
After a bit of internet research and following the instructions given to me here problem is fixed.
As I understand this "problem" occurs when the disk is full. So I booted with a live usb and deleted files from the drive and it's all well now.

Has anyone tried installing the home partition on a different drive than the rest of the system? I have a 256GB nmve drive and a 500GB ssd. Will it work if I reinstall the system and use the 500GB drive as a partition for the home directory?

[Cosmo.]

Of course it works. I would wait 1 or 2 months until Mint 21 is released.

[pbear]

As I understand this "problem" occurs when the disk is full.

Well, that's one cause. Corruption of the Xauthority file is another. You should figure out why you have this issue, as a suddenly-full disk isn't normal. Deleting files solves the problem in the short time, but it will recur if the underlying problem isn't addressed.

A common cause of a full system partition is modifying the default settings in Timeshift. With default settings, snapshots should only be something like 150% of system files, i.e., less than 40 GB in the aggregate (usually much less). If you had more than that, you probably have a Timeshift settings problem. Another potential cause of an unexpectedly full partition is runaway system logs. This is more rare but also trickier to fix.

Please open Terminal and run these three commands (use copy-and-paste):

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inxi -Fxz
df -hT -x squashfs -x tmpfs -x devtmpfs
sudo du -h /var/log

Copy the output and paste into your next reply. At the beginning of each output, type [code]; at the end, type [/code]. This will place the outputs in code boxes, like I've used here, which makes them easier to read. Use a separate code box for each output.

[George1981]

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 gpantouv@George-HomePC:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-121-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.4.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.7 Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma 
  base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: HP product: HP ProDesk 400 G7 Small Form Factor PC 
  v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: HP model: 8719 v: KBC Version 09.97.00 serial: <filter> UEFI: HP 
  v: S08 Ver. 02.08.01 date: 07/27/2021 
CPU:
  Topology: 6-Core model: Intel Core i5-10500 bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: N/A L2 cache: 12.0 MiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 74399 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/4500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 800 
  3: 800 4: 801 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:02.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: modesetting 
  unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1600x900~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630 (CML GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.6 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Comet Lake PCH cAVS vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-121-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: e1000e 
  v: 3.2.6-k port: efa0 bus ID: 00:1f.6 
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 704.24 GiB used: 212.91 GiB (30.2%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: KBG30ZMV256G KIOXIA size: 238.47 GiB 
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 233.24 GiB used: 212.91 GiB (91.3%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 50.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 328 Uptime: 3h 52m Memory: 23.21 GiB used: 3.48 GiB (15.0%) 
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 
  inxi: 3.0.38 
  

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gpantouv@George-HomePC:~$  df -hT -x squashfs -x tmpfs -x devtmpfs

Filesystem     Type  Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/nvme0n1p2 ext4  234G  213G  8,5G  97% /
/dev/nvme0n1p1 vfat  511M  5,3M  506M   2% /boot/efi

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gpantouv@George-HomePC:~$ sudo du -h /var/log
[sudo] password for gpantouv:              
4,0K	/var/log/openvpn
4,0K	/var/log/samba/cores/smbd
4,0K	/var/log/samba/cores/nmbd
12K	/var/log/samba/cores
96K	/var/log/samba
4,0K	/var/log/forticlient/vcm_log
4,0K	/var/log/forticlient/fmon_log
120K	/var/log/forticlient
4,0K	/var/log/speech-dispatcher
1,1M	/var/log/timeshift
56K	/var/log/cups
1,4G	/var/log/journal/dafd9a61376b4676aa8b190bc1ed4b43
1,4G	/var/log/journal
256K	/var/log/lightdm
396K	/var/log/apt
4,0K	/var/log/hp/tmp
8,0K	/var/log/hp
4,0K	/var/log/private
1,7M	/var/log/installer
1,4G	/var/log

Here are the outputs of the commands you asked

[AndyMH]

Code: Select all

/dev/nvme0n1p2 ext4  234G  213G  8,5G  97% /

Time to delete stuff, that is your problem, your / partition nearly full.